Month: October 2014

6. Post Processing

Some call it editing, some tweaking, and some, like me, we call it post processing (Pp).
As the name suggests, here we deal with the photos once they have already been taken. Blown highlights, deep shadows, details not enough, or plain need of some special effects, they all get sorted out right here. Do not be in the illusion that the pro photographers do not post process their photos, or that if you tweak them, you lack skill. There is nothing wrong, rather, post processing is one of the necessary parts of photography I would say.

Pp constitutes of absolutely everything thats being done to make the photo look better. But be advised, I feel it to be ethically correct that during Pp, the original photo should not be distorted. Put in the effects, change the contrast, change the color, go on, but do not add or delete details from the photo, thats my policy, but then again, ideas and outlook does vary.

While Pp, the big question comes up, how much available data is there for us to do the manipulations. This is where, the format wars, RAW vs JPG begins. In the film camera era, there was just one output from the camera and that was the negative. How you process the photo depended on how you treated the negative, partial prints, superpositions, etc…In the similar terms, we can call the RAW format as the negative while the JPG format being the actual print. There is not much flexibility regarding how much data we can pull and manipulate from the JPG format photos, while the RAW ones, are much bigger files and contain more data, hence, more options.

Pp has its side effects too. It makes the photographer complacent and careless at times, because, at the back of the head, the knowledge that the issues can be fixed is always there. Some people I know, they believe on taking the photo correctly in terms of the composition and aesthetics only. This is necessary, because in the end, how the photo looks matters the most. But, being technically correct also is essential. The more you manipulate a photo, the more noise or grain you will introduce to the photo. The quality degrades. So, the way I see it, take the photo as close to as how you would want the end product to be, little variations in the levels, let the post processing handle them.
Check out the photos underneath, they have been post processed on mobile apps…and yeah, these all are using cellphone cameras! Special thanks to my dear friend Miss R. Raja for putting up an awesome display pic in her account which  I have borrowed for my tweaking. The original photo is her property and she has the rights to it.

 Raveena Raja 20141030_093512    919893097638_Anne_Burn_Dirt

IMG_20141027_190539    IMG_20141027_190539_Anne_Burn_Flowery

IMG_20141025_153258     IMG_20141025_153258_Jean_Morning_Pint

IMG_20141001_100431     IMG_20141001_100431_Harry_Burn_Ground1

Cheers!

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5. Flash Photogrpahy

Flash photography, is simply put using the flash during taking the photo. We all know what a flash does, add light to the scene, thats the nutshell. Good use of flash allows the proper amount of light and also not washing off the colors in a photo. Most common use is during the night time photographs we take. These basic things, we are all aware off, and knowingly or not, we use them every other day.
But what do we do, when our subject is backlit, most commonly by sunlight? We take a photo without flash, and we end up having silhouette photos. I, personally, love the silhouette shots, but sometimes, you would like that the subject’s features, expressions too be captured. This is when the flash becomes indispensable. This technique of using the flash is known as “Fill Flash”.
Now, in a DSLR, you will have options of how strong you want the flash to be. With use and experience, you shall be able to judge the amount of light your scene needs and other than practice and trial and error, there is no short cut to it.

When you go through the options within the flash menu, generally, you ll come across the following options.
1. Normal Flash: This one is the standard issue flash setting. The shutter and the flash are synced and they normally fire simultaneously.

2. Slow sync Flash: This option comes up if you want to depict both motion and also freeze your subject. On the point and shoots, the party mode gives you this option. Here, the flash fires with combination of a slow shutter speed. The slow shutter speed gives the option to depict motion, while the flash freezes the subject in sharply.

Slow sync has two options, which come up in the Manual mode in the DSLR…
a. Front Curtain: Here, the flash is fired at the beginning of the exposure. Practically speaking, suppose you take the picture of a car moving from left to right using this method, then, the photo will have the car being sharp on the left side of your shot and then the trail of light leading it as the car exits from right. Here I show it with a coin toss! Notice how the falling coin is also captured in the shot.

Front Curtain
Front Curtain

 
b. Rear curtain: Similarly, here the flash is fired just before closing the shutter. It also does the same job, just from a different perspective. Same car, same direction, same shot, but this time, the car will be sharp in the right side of the photo with a trail of lights in the back. Similar coin toss, but here, you can see it spinning and in the moment the flash was fired, the coin’s motion has been frozen.

Rear Curtain
Rear Curtain

Flash photography can be used very creatively from making weird blurred backgrounds to eliminating shadow to freezing motion and so on…Go on take the shots and have fun creating stunning effects in the photos right in the camera.
Cheers!

 

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Diwali Special!

Hi all, with Diwali, the festival of lights just round the corner, I feel this post is very appropriately timed.

Light painting is dependent on long exposure shots. Have a high DOF, set the ISO low, 100 or 200, shutter speed should be slow…how slow depends on what you want to capture. If its fireworks trail, about 5′ should suffice for the standard rockets and go slower if needed. Use sparkles to create fun outlines, write your name in the air, draw your favorites and simply have fun.

DSC_0104

DSC_4216

These here are typical example of light paintings. In the second photo, more you can see me and my friend actually doing the painting. This ghosting effect occurs if there is suddenly a lot of light on the painter, in this case was by a passing car.

To focus, first use a light source to pinpoint the exact location you want the focus to be, use manual or auto, your choice, but once focus is achieved, switch the lens to manual, so that the focus doesnt change mid-shot. I normally ask my model to hold up the cell phone to their faces.. the light on their face is enough for me to make the focus, plus, having a deep DOF, acts as the buffer.

So, here it is, the secrets of stunning light paintings, laid bare. As the saying goes, if you put in some time, the possibilities of improvement are virtually…limitless!

Go ahead and shoot some awesome shots! Have a nice fun time! Happy Diwali!

Cheers!

 

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My Toys’ Story – II

Hi all….another iteration of my toys story! But this time, its the ones that went chugging and am sure, in some point of time we were all fascinated with the train engine, and to have a look within the engine, it was a huge thing of joy, for me, it still is, even today!

DSC_5473
The first one I remember!

 

DSC_5496
An old memory…really old one!

For the ones who had a look on my page, Showing Off, the star effect in the first photo has been achieved by the use of the same star filter that has been shown in the DIY. So you see, they do work pretty fine.

Go out there and relive the happy moments that you miss, and dont forget to experiment a bit too!
Until next time…
Cheers!

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My Toys’ Story – I

Remembering the toys that made impressions on my childhood….and which survived! On going assignment, I ll post them in parts, all clubbed under the same category for easier viewing! Enjoy!

 

Super Fast!!
Super Fast!!
Extreme Fury!
Extreme Fury!
The super fast and extremely furious!
The super fast and extremely furious!

More to come! Follow my post!

Cheers!

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Bokeh!!

Often, we come come across photos which have a sharp subject and a dreamy smooth defocussed background! That effect is called, Bokeh! Its a japanese word for blur, or basically, the out-of-focus areas in a photo. This is an inherent effect, so nothing special needs to be done. Having a few lights on the background, makes the bokeh beautiful, and more evident.

So, open up those apertures, and shoot awesome bokeh!!

Go Bokeh!! 🙂

Bokeh lights
Bokeh lights
Blue lights bokeh!
Blue lights bokeh!
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4. Shutter Speed and the Holy Trinity of photogrpahy

Hi there all…today the final part of the basics, shutter speed…
Shutter speed, as the name suggests is how fast or how slow the shutter will open up and close down. Lower the shutter speed, slower is the shutter movement and hence more time for the sensor to gather light.
The speed is denoted by notations like 1/250, 1/500 ranging upto 1/4000 commonly, upto 1/16000 are also found in very high end models. And on the slower side, speeds go 1/10, 1/2, 1′, 10′ generally up to 30′ and then there is a “bulb” mode. In the bulb mode, the shutter will remain open as long as the shutter button is pressed, no time limit to it.
Please note, 1/250 means, shutter will remain open for 1/250th of a second. Similarly, with a shutter speed of 2′, the shutter will remain open for 2 seconds. A faster shutter speed will allow you to freeze motion, make your photos less susceptible to camera shake and other disturbances while a slower one will allow you to show motion in form of trails, or ghost images.

     1/20     1/125     1/320

Now that we know the 3 basic pillars of making of a photo, namely, ISO-Aperture-Shutter Speed, we must now understand how these three are related. Let me explain below.

Assumption: we want a properly exposed, unblurred and negligibly noisy photo

1. With increase in shutter speed, chances of blurry image is less, and also the amount of light available decreases. So, for a properly exposed photo, we need to either slow down the shutter speed, or open up the aperture or increase the ISO.
We try opening up the aperture to the maximum to let in more light and also, we increase the ISO setting to make the sensor sensitive…then, the limiting factors become, how much DOF do you want, and how much noise can your camera handle.
For settings where you control the shutter speed and let the camera handle the rest, switch to the Shutter Priority mode, denoted by the “S” button on the dial in Nikon Cameras.

2. With a wide aperture, you get ample light to work with, but a very shallow DOF. Suppose you want a deeper depth, you ll need to stop down the aperture a few stops. This, in turn causes the light available to decrease, and hence, the need arises to lower the shutter speed or increase the ISO. As stated earlier, lower shutter speed will cause blurriness due to camera shake and higher ISO will cause noise. Hence, the limiting factor basically becomes, how slow shutter speed can the lens accommodate with the Vibration Reduction (VR) systems and/or how steady your hand is.
For settings, where you control only the aperture, switch to the “A” (Aperture Priority) mode in Nikon Cameras.

3. There will be conditions, where the aperture value is maxed out, and the shutter speed is as slow as feasible and still not enough light, that is when we need to increase the ISO out of compulsion, in my opinion that is. The sensor becomes more sensitive and we get better exposure, but the chance of a grainy pic is always there.
For this mode, where you get to change only the ISO, dial in to the “P” (Program Auto) mode in Nikon Cameras.

These modes are tried and tested over the years of SLR history and they deliver impeccable results with an appreciative hit rate, its a huge advantage to know how they work. But then, there are those, who want to have total control over the Trinity. If you are amongst those who are not afraid to take complete control of your camera, have a lot of misses and very few hits initially, learn to read the photo histograms, understand the range finder and then take a shot…then switch to the Manual mode, “M” on the Nikon bodies. As an afterthought, sooner or later, you will have to shift to the Manual mode to grow…so I ll suggest, get friendly with the Manual mode early on, but do know the quick settings that might be handy in a jiffy.

Once you get cool with the modes, shots like these, are going to be easy.

  15s  1/250

1/200

Next up, the first photo effect and some shots of a very common and very beautiful, Bokkeh!

Cheers!

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3. Aperture (F-stop) and Depth of Field

Hi there all, today, its all about dilation and depth…Aperture and DOF (Depth of Field)
Aperture is the slit or opening through which light enters the camera through the lens. The aperture is the characteristic of the lens and not the camera body. It is denoted by the F/- numbers, in the format of f/2, f/3.6, etc.
You might have heard people say, photos taken at “widest aperture” or “aperture fully open”, what they essentially mean is that the aperture is open at the maximum to open the maximum amount of light. The smaller the f/- number, the wider the aperture. The below photos show the apertures at various f/- numbers.

  f-1.8    f-5.6    f-11    f-22

The wider the aperture, to get a shot properly exposed, you get more light coming in at an instant…so that reduces the need to increase the ISO. Another way of saying this would be, suppose at f/5.6, you need ISO 400 to properly expose a shot, other conditions remaining constant, then, if you open up the aperture to f/1.8, then ISO 100 would cater to the shot adequately. How is this helpful…it reduces noise that are introduced with higher ISO.
Now, the other factor that is directly related to aperture values, is depth of field (DOF).
DOF refers to the part of the photo that will remain in focus when you take the shot. You might have seen and marveled at the photos, where the subject is in sharp focus and the background is a dreamy blur…that is to say, the DOF extends over the subject only. With the increase in the F/- numbers, the DOF increases i.e region of photo that will show up in sharp focus increases.
There might and will be times, when we want some of the background to show up, we would just increase the DOF, that’s all. This also acts as a buffer for the people who are unsure while using manual focus. You focus to the best of your ability, and have a fairly deep DOF, chances are very high that the subject will be in focus, but this technique is generally avoided and discouraged.
Similarly, for a shallow DOF, dial down the aperture value and hence open it up and you have yourself a very isolated subject..perfect for those portraits of your loved ones 😉

These photos below have been taken varying only the F stops to give an idea of what it is.

    f/1.8     f/3.2     f/4

        f/7.1     f/22     f/14

Now, in the following ones, are more like real situations where, with the change of F stops, DOF changes , and so does the amount of light coming in. With increase in F stops, light entry will decrease proportionately.

 

  f1.8     f2.5     f3.2

 f5     f7.1

Now, with tweaking the ISO and changing the F stop numbers (that’s what F/- numbers are called, by the way), you can manage the photos all right, the photos of still life objects, landscapes, basically, objects which wont move. How do you take a noiseless photo, with nice DOF and proper exposure too? Or how do you capture or restrict motion…that’s where shutter speed comes into play. Coming up next…
Cheers!

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2. ISO

Hi all…today, the first basic concept of the image…ISO
Some of you might know and remember ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization and they set some standards, namely, ISO12232:2006, for determining sensitivity of a camera sensor, hence the name ISO. Not going into all the technicalities, long story cut short….ISO lets you change the sensitivity of the sensor.
Lower the ISO number (say ISO 100/200, even up to 400 on some cameras) better will be the clarity of the picture, this is kind of a thumb rule. So, why would we want to rise from these numbers at all, set the camera to the lowest ISO and snap away…we always want the sharpest of pictures right? The argument is true, Yes, we do want the sharpest photos but every now and then, we are in situations where we do not have decent amount of light. Bumping up the ISO, lets us deal with this issue. When we are increasing the ISO number, we are increasing the light sensitivity of the digital sensor. The ISO system today, in digital cameras is equivalent to what film speeds were in the film cameras. Remember the numbers written on the film rolls, and how a 400 or a 800 speed film would be pretty costly and hardly be given to us, when we were younger, while the 100 or 80 speed ones were cheaper and more dispensable. Back then, the film speeds reflected how sensitive the film were to low light conditions, more sensitive, more pricey.
But, the sensitivity comes with a trade off too…noise, digital noise. Digital noise is what causes tiny grains to appear on the photos. Sometimes we do put on a film-grain effect on the photo to make it look different, but if they come up in the original photo, it is undesirable. Now, with increase in the sensitivity, the noise also increases. To counter this, the cameras generally have a noise reduction system in them. These systems, take care of the noise till ISO 800 with ease, some take handle it up to ISO 6400 too, but beyond that, the noise overwhelms the anti-noise system and they appear in the photos.
Below are a few photos, which are almost 200% crops of bigger photos, taken of a pillow cover at various ISO to show the difference. Notice that in ISO 100, 400, and also in 800, the strands are pretty much visible separately but once beyond that, they start getting smudged in the photo…this is being caused by noise and in ISO6400 and ISO12800, the details are almost non existent.

The high end DSLRs provide with ranges near ISO204800. Agreed, at that high range, your picture will be noise and noise only, but the sensitivity will allow you to shoot at pitch darkness and your camera will see more than your eye can and give you some outputs, in theory at least…need to try this in practice someday..
Now, even in the entry level DSLRs, the noise reduction system is good enough that on a general viewing, the noise might not be a distraction to the great photo that you have taken. But as and when you start printing them, say at 100%, the noise will show up and believe me, you would want to avoid that.

To avoid the noise from creeping in and ruining your shot, you ll need to handle the aperture ( F stop) and the shutter speed….topics coming up on the next posts..

Cheers

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1. Photo-Graphy

Photography, is a composite of greek words, photos meaning light and graphe meaning drawing, making the complete meaning as drawing using light. Gone are the days of portraits when the model would have to sit for hours, still, so that the painter can create an impression of her, with no guarantees that the portrait will be accurate. And also, gone are the days, when post clicking a photo, we’d need to wait for at least a week to know how much similarity exists between what we saw and what we captured.
Now, we have digital cameras, that let us know what we might capture before we take it actually. Still, differences do exist in quality, based on what we are using. In general, cellphone cameras, point and shoots and D-SLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras form the main three groups of cameras available. Each have their own capacities and their own uniqueness and one can really not compare and say, this certain group is better than the rest. The gap that existed between the groups have diminished considerably and they have all found their supporters. I, like many, own specimens from all 3 groups and respect each for their versatility, compactness and ease of use. Opinions and views will always vary, but the things that dont change,that are the basics of the photos.
In the upcoming posts, I ll write about the basic pillars of a photo and then on, how to balance and make the best use of them.
Till then,
Cheerio!

My Cameras
My Cameras
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